Tourism New Zealand seems super-keen to maximise the tourism opportunities that The Hobbit is offering. Chief executive Kevin Bowler says that new 100% Pure commercials, designed to sell New Zealand to the world, will be “hugely influenced by The Hobbit”.
A theme of the new marketing strategy will be “New Zealand: where fantasy meets reality”.
New advertisements will feature people enjoying what the country had to offer. Bowler says that previous images of rolling hills, lush bush and green pastures had given the impression New Zealand was beautiful, yet deserted, and visitors would struggle to find activities to occupy themselves.
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Folks in Christchurch have the chance to catch Sylvester McCoy at the Armageddon Expo today (Sat June 30) and tomorrow (Sun July 1) at the Stables in Addington Raceway.
Entry is $5, and McCoy will be signing between 3pm and 5pm both days. He’s also doing a Doctor Who panel (I saw it I swear!) but I can’t currently locate the time on the Armageddon website.
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SAN DIEGO – Warner Bros. today announced what has been suspected and rumored: the studio is bringing “The Hobbit,” to the San Diego Comic-Con in a big way. Most surprising is just how big as director Peter Jackson, producer and co-screenwriter Philippa Boyens, actor and director Andy Serkis along with featured actors Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen and Richard Armitage are all expected at the Saturday, July 14 Comic-Con panel hosted by Warner Bros. The film sharing the three-hour slot with “The Hobbit,” is none other than “Hobbit” co-writer Guillermo del Toro‘s “Pacific Rim.” The director is also expected to be in attendance. TheOneRing.net’s team of 13 staffers (a lucky 13 that works nicely with the source material) will be reporting from the scene as much as possible, bringing the emotions, news, photos, video and quotes to the online audience.
The studio has been relatively quiet on the publicity front considering the budget and cultural size of the two films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” (celebrating its 75th anniversary in print this year) releasing a single trailer, a series of character photos and letting Peter Jackson’s own production diaries on his Facebook page function as pre-film publicity. That seems to be changing in a single moment as WB drops an atomic bomb of Middle-earth star power at the central event of the popular-culture calendar. Continue reading “‘Hobbit’ lineup announced for Comic-Con includes Jackson, McKellen, Serkis, Armitage, Freeman, Boyens”
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The biggest question received about the TORn Hobbit Premiere tour has been whether or not people living down in New Zealand, or already traveling through the region, can attend the Red Carpet/TORn premiere party. The answer is yes, but the tickets are not on sale just yet. Everyone thought it best to wait until after the madness and mayhem of comic con was over before returning our minds to Middle-earth er, New Zealand. Once Red Carpet Tours has their Party ticket registration form live and online, we will post that link. For everyone else who isn’t a local resident or already traveling through the region, feel free to conside Red Carpet Tour’s full tour, or our little Middle-earth week long getaway. Follow the link for Tour Details.
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Shannon O’Toole is a life-long Lord of the Rings fan. In this blogpost on the San Diego Comic-Con Unoffocial Blog, she details why fellow-fans should be excited for this year’s edition.
As the release of The Hobbit approaches and Middle-earth once again lights up movie screens across the globe, The Lord of the Rings, the film trilogy that introduced many to Tolkien’s world for the first time, has received a revitalization of sorts.
TORn’s panel (10:15 on Thursday in room 6DE, folks) even gets a mention!
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Today, San Diego Comic con began to roll out their full programming schedule. It starts with Preview Night and screenings of numerous Pilots for the Fall TV season (this reporter has seen Arrow and I highly recommend it), followed by the full schedule for Thursday, including TORn’s 10:15am panel in Room 6DE (one of the Top 5 rooms at comiccon and a well earned upgrade for us). The next 3 days will see the rest of the schedule fall into place, and then you can expect updates and changes right up until the convention starts, and sometimes even during the convention.
TheOneRing.net will have a large slate of staffers in attendance, 13 in all, a Baker’s Dozen to be sure. Odd how that mirrors the number of Dwarves on this Unexpected Journey, now isn’t it? This is the largest we have ever had, if memory serves correctly. There will be live tweets, facebook posts and streaming content as often as possible from numerous locations on the exhibit hall floor and from numerous panels throughout the weekend. With 13 people running around, if something cool happens somewhere in SDCC, you will be the first to know. And remember, we are also going to be in not one, but two locations on the Exhibit Hall floor. We will be with are dear friends at Badali Jewelry at booth #530/532 and with our commrades from WETA a booth #3513B (inside the Gentle Giant booth). Oh, and one last note, we are hosting a little Tolkien Cosplay after our panel, about 11:30am-11:45am outside on the Terrace behind the Sails Pavillion on Thursday. Bring your costumes, bring you smiles and bring your cameras.
Let the mayhem begin. Although, why not start with the Convention Rules page before digging into the actual schedule Here!
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